The bulk of mail I receive from readers asks for tips on selling a home. Many have had their home on the market for months without a showing. Some home sellers have had dozens of buyer previews but not one purchase offer.

In buyer’s markets, it is especially important to pull out all the stops and make your home stand out among the sea of inventory on the market. Ask yourself why a buyer would choose your home over all the other homes for sale.

Poor Condition of Your Home

Check out your competition. If 90% of the homes in your market are not selling, then your home needs to outshine the top 10%. Look at the homes that are pending sales because that’s your current indicator. Sold comps could be two to three months in arrears of market movement. You want to know what is happening right now, and pending sale data will tell you which homes are selling.

Apart from preparing your home for sale, consider its condition. Perhaps you should consider adding updates or doing repairs before selling. If the top 10% on the market have new carpeting and your carpeting is worn and dated, your home is not going to sell. Replace the carpet. Paint the walls neutral — not white. Check its curb appeal.

Not Enough Photographs or Badly Shot Photographs

Homes in MLS that have one photo are passed by. Homes with dozens of photographs get noticed. Take quality photos or hire a professional photographer. Shoot wide angles with plenty of light showcasing your home’s best features. For goodness sake, keep the toilet lid closed.

* Unless your bedrooms differ from one another significantly, just shoot the master bedroom or largest bedroom.

* Don’t get yourself or the camera in the photo of the bathroom by shooting the mirror’s reflection.

* If your hallway is narrow, don’t take a picture of it. Get a close up of your fireplace or other interesting feature instead.

* Take several photos of the kitchen. The kitchen is generally the most important photo.

* Before photographing the dining room, set the table.

* Living room photos should show space, so move out some of that furniture.

* Remember to include the back yard and gardens.

* Add descriptive text to each photo; make your poetry sing.

You Haven’t Paid For Extensive Marketing and Advertising

No single aspect of marketing sells a home. It’s a combination of marketing efforts. If your newspaper makes a mistake and lists your home under the wrong section, don’t panic — homes have sold to buyers who found them in the wrong place. For that reason, consider placing an ad under several classifications.

* Print four-color postcards and mail them to surrounding homes in the neighborhood and to out-of-area buyers.

* Create four-color flyers containing several photos to distribute to prospects and those who tour your home.

* Hire a virtual tour company to shoot and upload videos.

* Massively advertise every weekend.

* Hold Open Houses on Sundays that coincide with other neighborhood open houses. Sometimes Thursday evenings attract buyers.

* Get feedback from buyers about what they liked and disliked about your home, and make adjustments to overcome objections.

* Consider shooting a video yourself and uploading it to YouTube.com, even if it’s just you talking about what you like about living there.

You Hired the Wrong Listing Agent

You want to work with an agent who is competent, experienced and honest. There are a variety of ways to find an agent but the easiest way is through referrals from friends and family.

If you desire full-service and want an agent to spend tons of money on the listing, hire a full service brokerage and interview several agents. To find the best listing agent, don’t base your decision solely on the suggested sales price or how much the agent charges you because there are other considerations. Discuss home pricing and commission negotiations last. First, find out the agent’s strategic marketing plan.

You Haven’t Priced Your Home to Sell

Sellers say, “But I don’t want to give away my house.” Of course, not. You want to sell it. To sell your home, the price must be right. Don’t “test” the market or ask an inflated figure because if you do, your home will probably sit on the market and the DOM will continue to tick. Dated listings don’t generally sell for list price.

To avoid overpricing your home, examine the sold comparable sales. Adjust for square footage, if necessary. If your home has a bad layout or is located in bad location such as next to a school, on or near a busy street or bordering a liquor store, you’re not going to get the same price as homes with a good layout and in a good location.

For example, if the last three homes sold at $400,000 but you feel they are not comparable to yours because they don’t contain updates — but they were located on a quiet street and your street is noisy — your home is probably worth about the same. A plus-$50,000 adjustment for the updates could wash out the minus-$50,000 for the busy street.

In a buyer’s market, price your home a minimum of 2% less than the last comparable sale. If you can’t live with that price, then don’t put your home on the market and set yourself up for disappointment. Overpricing is the worst mistake a home seller can make.

Not every mistake in a real estate transaction can be reversed, much less fixed before closing. If buyers goof up and make an innocent mistake, they might very well be stuck with the consequences for a long time or, worse, their deal might not even close. It could fall out of escrow.

Number One Blunder: Refusing to Confide in a Trusted Advisor

This advisor could be your real estate lawyer or real estate agent. Buyers withhold information for a variety of reasons such as:

* Fear of how they will be perceived

* Irrational belief they have all the answers

* Don’t feel it is important enough

* Lack confidence in their advisor

Experienced real estate professionals handle such a multitude of transactions and personality mixes, there’s little they haven’t heard before. Your advisors are representing your best interests and have a fiduciary responsibility to do so. They can’t help you if they don’t know what you are doing behind their backs. Plus, they will likely have a better idea for you than you can dredge up.

If you have cold feet and have thoughts about backing out of the transaction, talk to your agent about those feelings. She can help walk you through the anxieties. Pros will help you to determine if you really need to cancel and, if so, manage the transaction so you can get your earnest money deposit back.

Number Two Blunder: Altering Financial Pictures Prior to Closing

When I bought my first home, I easily qualified because I had no car payment nor revolving debt. A week before closing, I bought a new car and financed the purchase. New ratios meant I no longer qualified. A frantic phone call to my mother, begging her to lend me the money to pay off my car loan (and threatening to show up on her doorstep with luggage in tow and a cat under each arm), was the only tactic that saved me from losing the house.

Today’s home buyers make the same mistake. Do not buy anything on credit and / or with a credit card once you have completed a loan application. Do NOT buy:

* Automobiles

* Washers, dryers, refrigerators

* Lawnmowers or garden equipment

* Expensive electronics or computers

* Furniture for your new home

Slight alterations in your credit ratios could cause an underwriter to throw out your loan and deny it. If your loan contingency has expired or been removed, you could forfeit your earnest money deposit in addition to losing the home.

Number Three Blunder: Buying the Wrong House

The very first thing home buyers should do is make a list of priorities and define home purchase objectives. Figure out what features and benefits are most important and which you can live without. Before you close escrow, review this list. It’s easy to overlook a major factor that could come back to haunt you later.

A buyer looking for a home in the midtown neighborhood of Sacramento, California, found herself swept up in the excitement of buying a home that was a bit less than she actually needed. She convinced herself that having one bathroom was suitable, but discovered shortly after closing that sharing a bath with two grown sons was impossible. It caused her so much tension and strain that she sold less than a year later. It cost her money to sell and more money to buy a two-bathroom home in another neighborhood. If the market had been depressed or a buyer’s market, she could have lost everything, like this next guy, instead of simply spending a lot more money than was necessary.

Another buyer purchased a home that cost him about $100,000 more than he was comfortable spending. But he fell in love with the Victorian character: the high ceilings, sparkling chandeliers and wide-planked floors. A year later, he could no longer afford to make his mortgage payment. The house was too expensive for him to maintain. He would have been better off buying a smaller home in a more modest neighborhood. But he let his soaring emotions cloud his good judgment. Since his purchase, the market softened and he could not sell. He lost his home to a short sale.

Women have special concerns about personal safety. The US Census Bureau says there are more than 14 million women who live alone in cities. Moreover, 118.5 million women populate cities and their suburbs.

As security issues loom large in our cities, single women make up more than one-third of the growth in real estate ownership since 1994. More single women buy homes than ever before.

Some builders and city planners are increasing security measures as they begin to recognize that many homes, condominiums, parking lots, streets and sidewalks are not designed with women in mind. A few cities even offer classes to help prepare women who are afraid to take public transportation.

Women Home Buyers Fear Violence

My mother taught me to walk at a brisk pace in public places if I felt uneasy. She said women with a confident walk are less likely to be prone to violence because attackers look for easy prey. It’s advice I heed.

Violence is a concern because many lower-priced homes that an average single woman can easily afford to buy are located in or near crime-ridden neighborhoods. The evening news and daily newspapers report on a multitude of crimes every day and dwell on the sensational ones. For good reasons, this may fuel womens’ fear of :

* Assault

* Rape

* Mugging

* Harassment

* Murder

Fear is a healthy emotion. Women should listen to their guts. A good book that talks about how to predict violence and listen to your internal signals for survival is The Gift of Fear, by Gavin De Becker.

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12 Home Buying Safety Tips for Single Women

None of this is meant to be frighten women away from buying a home, but to help prepare women for home ownership safety and to offer tips on finding the right home by shopping with security at the forefront.

Here are home shopping tips for safety-conscious home buying:

* Buy Homes With Attached Garages.

When winter arrives, the days get shorter, which means by the time day-shift workers arrive home, it’s already dark. Consider how you might feel walking in the dark toward the house if your garage were detached. Insist on an electronic garage door opener.

* Consider Gated Communities

Ask how often the gate code is changed. Most homeowner associations routinely change the codes to prevent entry by unauthorized persons. Check to make sure the gate is timed to close before a second car can enter.

* Pay Attention to Lighting

No woman wants to feel like a prisoner in her own home. Most of us enjoy living in a neighborhood where we can feel free to take a stroll after dinner or walk to the grocery store. Abundant street lighting and motion-sensor lights offer more security than dimly lit areas.

* Buy Homes With Security Systems

Find out if the security system is leased or owned and how much it costs per month. Ask for an explanation about how the home is wired, and whether all the doors and windows are monitored on the system. Determine who answers breaches — whether it’s the police or the security alarm staff.

* Inspect Door Locks and Door Jambs

Look at the door jamb to determine if it’s been cracked or repaired. Notice if the lock is new. If you notice a damaged door jamb or a new lock, ask why. A screen door that acts as a security door with its own locking system provides more protection. Also, make sure all exterior doors have strong deadbolts, which unlock from the inside — for fire safety reasons — without a key.

* Check Location of Bedrooms

Second-floor bedrooms might appear safer, but the likelihood is the distance from the first floor could make them effectively soundproof, so sounds of a break-in may not travel to the second floor. It’s also more difficult to escape from a second-floor bedroom if the threat is a fire rather than a burglar. Burglars tend to prefer quiet locations where they can go about the business of breaking in without being seen from the street.

* Consider Condos Above the Main Floor

Criminals don’t want to bother with climbing stairs, taking an elevator or being noticed in a building, which is why first-floor condos tend to attract more crime. Condos that face the street are often considered more secure than those toward the back.

* Inspect the Windows

Single-pane windows are easier to break than dual pane. If any of the exterior doors have large windows of glass, make sure the door knob is located far enough away from the window to discourage break-ins. It’s easy to break into a home by smashing a window, reaching inside and turning the door knob.

* Beware of Homes on an Alley

Alleys are quiet, generally dark at night, and provide ways for criminals to approach your home — unnoticed by the neighbors. Alleys provide easy escape routes as well. Some neighborhoods are installing gates on alleys to discourage public access to private homes.

* Pull Neighborhood Crime Reports

Most city police departments report crime statistics online. Search for your city name and police to find a local web site. You can also look at the FBI’s national registry of sex offenders to determine how many sexual predators live in your area. You’ll be amazed.

* Check Out the Neighboring Structures

Some studies show that crime is higher in mixed-use neighborhoods than in subdivisions or communities of single family homes. They say that mixed-use, such as apartment buildings or commercial properties located among residential, increases crime because residents lose control over who can loiter.

* Buy Homes With a Fenced Back Yard

A fenced yard discourages crime because it makes it harder for unauthorized persons to gain access. In addition, you might want to consider adopting a dog, since fenced yards provide a play area for dogs. Dogs make great companions and offer a sense of security for some women. It’s not necessary to get a big dog, either, as little dogs can often yap louder and more incessantly than big dogs. Your neighbors will love that!

I suspect there are two camps of people who like to fill out surveys — those who are busting at the seams for the chance to share glowing reviews and those with a rant or need to vent, and not much else in between.

Put me in the rant camp. It’s a lot more fun, for example, to read an Ebert movie review of a bad movie than a good one. But you can imagine my delight when I discovered that the National Association of Realtors was conducting a survey among its members. NAR is interested in hearing about the experiences of agents nationwide who are working with the four largest lenders in distressed transactions.

The lenders are Bank of America, CitiMortgage, Wells Fargo Bank and J. P. Morgan Chase. NAR is meeting with these lenders to discuss the ongoing challenges we in the industry face. You might want to contact your REALTOR® or NAR if you’ve got a gripe that you want heard. Anybody who bought or sold a distressed property over the past four years most likely has a complaint.

Few people can buy a Tallahassee home for cash. According to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), nearly nine out of 10 buyers finance their purchase, which means that virtually all buyers — especially first-time purchasers — required a loan.

The real issue with real estate financing is not getting a loan (virtually anyone willing to pay lofty interest rates can find a mortgage). Instead, the idea is to get the loan that’s right for you — the mortgage with the lowest cost and best terms.

REALTORS® routinely suggest that consumers start the mortgage process well before bidding on a home. Many lenders (the sources of money) and programs, for example, are available right here in the finance section of Realtor.com as well as through recommendations from local REALTORS®. By meeting with lenders — either online or face to face — and looking at loan options, you will find which programs best meet your needs and how much you can afford.

REALTORS® also recommend pre approvals for another reason: Purchase forms often require buyers to apply for financing within a given time period, in many cases, seven to 10 days. By meeting with loan officers in advance and identifying mortgage programs, it won’t be necessary to quickly find a lender, check credit, and rush into a financing decision that may not be the best option.

What is it?

“Pre-approval” means you have met with a loan officer, your credit files have been reviewed and the loan officer believes you can readily qualify for a given loan amount with one or more specific mortgage programs. Based on this information, the lender will provide a pre approval letter, which shows your borrowing power. You can visit as many lenders as you like and get several pre-approvals, but keep in mind that each one carries with it a new credit check, which will show up on future credit reports.

Although not a final loan commitment, the pre approval letter can be shown to listing brokers when bidding on a home. It demonstrates your financial strength and shows that you have the ability to go through with a purchase. This information is important to owners since they do not want to accept an offer that is likely to fail because financing cannot be obtained.

How do you get pre-approval?

Real estate financing is available from numerous sources, including lenders here in the finance section of Realtor.com, mortgage companies that have worked with local REALTORS® and in some cases, individual REALTORS® themselves. Based on his or her experience, the REALTOR® may suggest one or more lenders with a history of offering competitive programs and delivering promised rates and terms.

The loan officer will carefully review your financial situation, including your credit report and other information. The lender will then suggest programs which most-closely meet your needs. For instance, a first-time buyer may qualify for state-backed mortgage programs with little money down and low interest rates, while a repeat purchaser (someone who has bought a home before) with more equity (money invested in the home) might want to get a 15-year loan and the lower overall interest costs it represents. Typically, first-time buyers opt for the traditional 30-year loan, with either a floating interest rate or a fixed rate of interest over the life of the loan.

Two years after the US subprime crisis, China is seeing its own real estate bubble as a result of massive state stimulus programs. Many economists are warning it could burst soon.” Spiegel says the consequences for the world economy are difficult to predict: “The bubble could burst in two years, says Cao Jianhai of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, and then it will be up to Hu’s and Wen’s successors to correct the situation. In the worst case, Cao predicts, there could be a large-scale run on the banks. ‘Of the 4 trillion yuan in the Chinese economic stimulus package, 3 trillion are in fact coming from local governments—and they borrowed the money from the banks.